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Mesothelioma Bill – Estimated Compensation Analysis Support

Throughout June, the Mesothelioma Bill due has been under consideration at the House of Lords, including a heated debate over amendments, which lasted four hours at the Lords’ Grand Committee.

Parliamentary procedure requires an interim period to elapse between each stage, from reading, reporting and voting on the proposed Bill before draft legislation is expected to arrive at the House of Commons at the end of June.

The introduction of the Mesothelioma Bill – due to come into force in July 2014 – is aimed to provide mesothlioma compensation to 3,500 previously excluded sufferers in the first ten years of the scheme.

Concern has been raised by a number of asbestos awareness and mesothelioma support groups and organisations over the exclusion of specific asbestosis disease sufferers who were diagnosed with mesothelioma before 25 July 2012 and the possible reduced amount (to around 70 per cent) in compensation which is claimed will be finally paid out.

Government analysis

Analysis to support the passage of the Mesothelioma Bill through the Parliamentary hearing process was drawn up by the government. Various estimates were generated based on the proposed Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme (DMPS), using previous average mesothelioma claim amounts ( published by National Institute of Economic and Social Research, 2013).

According to this scale, a 70 per cent payout would produce the following figures:

However, the above figures are likely to be subject to adjustment once further factors start to be applied. These variously include:

• Estimated costs if the scheme payment was raised to various percentages of average compensation.
• A levy to be paid by insurers.
• Estimated volumes and costs if the scheme started on specific dates.
• Taking into account an assumed additional payment of £2,000 for legal fees.
• Recovery of any government benefits and lump sum payments paid.

Based on previous payment figures, recorded by the Compensation Recovery Unit (CRU), 2009 to 2012 – which should not be considered indicative of amounts any one particular individual might have actually received – the estimated payments, which could be received under the proposed scheme, minus the median (average) and maximum recovered in government benefits, could look like this:

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